Can

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the cities of West Memphis and Marion not _nd TV and Internet providers that can provide reputable customer service anymore? Was without services for a total of 20 days in December. That was after 4 appointments.

The _rst appointment was for anytime between 8am and 8pm and after staying home that entire day nobody showed up. That was after waiting 2 days to get the _rst appointment. Rescheduled and took me 6 more days before my next appointment. Tech came and it worked 5 days. Called and scheduled the next appointment and it took another 6 days.

Another tech came, and it worked a couple of hours and down again! Called and rescheduled and _nally another tech came and that was December 29th and still working now. Called today Jan 17th and ask about getting a credit on my bill.

They offered me $15 and my previous bill paid for all services through Jan 6th.

So my current bill for Jan 7th through February 6th is $155.82 and that’s for the digital economy package for TV and Performance Starter Internet package. This is the bare minimal packages. I do have 2 very small tv’s in bedrooms and these services and equipment is included in the total cost. I think what they wanna credit off for loss of service is absurd.

The back of my house has boxes and wires hanging down from my vinyl siding and looks like crap. Hope these cities can _nd a decent American Company to deal with. [Editor’s Note: I feel your pain. I have had my share of run-ins with the cable, satellite, internet, cell phone, etc. people in the past and it is never pleasant. A few years ago, I saw a list of industries with the worst customer service ratings. It was like 25 names and _ve of the top 10 (or bottom 10, I guess) were AT& T, Comcast, Cox Communication, Dish, and DirectTV. And you know why they continue to get away with it? Because they can. As terrible as their service is, they are almost always the best in the area believe it or not. I mean do you want good internet that works most of the time or bad internet that works all of the time? Yes, the prices are ridiculous, and that’s why a lot of “cut the cord” calls against cable started years ago, but if you switch to another means of getting your TV service, like satellite or streaming, you run into a different but equally frustrating set of problems. I wish you luck with your service going forward, but we’re all at the mercy of these big corporations. Several years ago, there was talk about West Memphis starting its own cable company, much like they do with their utilities. I don’t know if that’s still a viable option, but it might be worth looking into] Evidently you haven’t ever worked for a city. Yes, department heads to get a vehicle as a perk for the position but this isn’t supposed to be taken advantage of. If what was mentioned is true then yes, it’s taking advantage of the city vehicle paid for by the citizens. It’s not rocket science to _gure out that using a city vehicle for hauling building supplies and carting personal folks around. Also, it’s not a good impression for people to see a city owned parked at the casino. When someone calls out these questionable practices you seem to want to defend them. Wear and tear on these vehicles using them for side jobs should be dealt with. [Editor’s Note: Let me be clear, I’m not defending anyone here.

I’m simply saying that there does not appear to be anything in the West Memphis Municipal Code that makes anything being described here as against the law or even against city ordinance.

I even looked at the state level codes and Arkansas Code speci_cally gives what few codes there are for cityowned vehicle use exemptions for the _re chief and police chief. Saying it “looks bad” for a city-owned vehicle to be “parked at a the casino” is purely a judgment statement. What about the casino looks bad for the Fire Chief but not for the thousand other cars parked there? You use the phrase “take advantage of” when you really mean “use” and I don’t think there’s anything here to object that strongly to. I’m perfectly willing to be proven wrong here if anyone can cite Arkansas Code or West Memphis Municipal Code saying otherwise]